


(not) too late

by somalester



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infinity War spoilers, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), THAT SCENE, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, more hurt though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 06:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14635986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somalester/pseuds/somalester
Summary: Tony failed. He'd made it his responsibility to protect the kid and he failed.Peter's pleading keeps replaying in his head like a broken record.





	(not) too late

Tony’s hand is covered in charcoal dust.

He moves to wipe it off, then realizes with a sickening feeling in his gut that that’s Peter, that’s the _kid_ \- or all that’s left of him at least - clinging to his skin. Tony cradles his hand towards his chest, as if that could somehow bring him back. Which is ludicrous, and Tony doesn’t have the strength to lie to himself, not here, a billion miles away from home and completely alone.

He failed.

He’d made it his responsibility to protect the kid, and he failed.

He shakes his head - at himself, at the universe, but the universe doesn’t care and he has no will left to remain in it.

Slowly, and painfully, the denial and shock

_\- Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good. - You’re alright, kid. -_

fade and suddenly there’s room for grief. It wraps itself around his lungs and makes his breath quicken in a way he’s way too familiar with since New York.

Tony lets his head sink onto his hands and tries to breathe as slowly as possible.

It doesn’t work. Instead, he feels tears running down his cheeks.

Somewhere next to him, he can hear footsteps. It takes him a moment to remember that _technically_ , he’s not completely alone.

“We can’t stay here.”

It doesn’t matter. Tony might as well be the last human being in the universe.

But the blue woman doesn’t accept his silence. Tony struggles to remember her name - Nebula, if he heard Quill right.

“Get up.”

Tony raises his head, about to snap at her, when, “They won’t come back if we just sit around here.”

Tony stares at her. He hasn’t even entertained the idea that maybe, maybe, all isn’t lost yet. Maybe, he hasn’t failed the kid yet.

It’s laughable, really. Thanos could kill he rest of them just as easily.

Tony finds that he doesn’t really care. “Let’s go.”

* * *

 

Nebula asks him where their main base is, and Tony has to admit he’s got no idea. He knows the others were on earth, trying to stop Thanos from getting to the last infinity stone. But where exactly is anyone’s guess.

He tells the blue woman as much, and has to credit her for only closing her eyes in annoyance.

They end up going back to the compound, but Tony’s vague hopes of finding at least _someone_ there are crushed.

And the worst thing is, he doesn’t know if they left on their own accord, or if they simply turned to dust like Strange and the Guardians, and -

Pepper. Tony knows Pepper didn’t have any meetings scheduled that would’ve required her to leave the compound.

_“Fuck!”_ Tony yells into the empty building, but, of course, nobody answers.

He punches the wall for good measure, but there’s nobody stepping in to calm him down. Nebula only watches his little outbreak with mild disinterest.

“Can you find them?” She asks, and Tony doesn’t even know if he wants to.

“I can try,” is what he says instead.

* * *

 

Tony does. He tries, and a few hours and several dead ends later he is able to trace their movements king T’Challa’s country.

Nebula doesn’t seem that impressed - Tony is, by all means, only following a signal, and if they’re still there is anyone’s guess - but it’s the only chance they’ve got.

* * *

 

There’s no delegation to greet them when their quinjet lands in front of the city. The scenery looks as deserted as the compound.

“They can’t _all_ be gone,” Tony says as they open the hatchet.

Nebula gives him a glance but doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t need to. Her unspoken words hover over them like dark clouds.

When they step out of the plane, it’s eerily quiet. The wind blowing through the high buildings of the city is the only thing cutting through the silence.

For a few minutes, Tony hovers uncertainly next to the quinjet. He feels like an unwelcome intruder, even though the place seems to be completely deserted.

Then, at least fifty meters away from him, a door opens. “Tony?” The figure yells, and Tony’s knees almost give out in relief.

* * *

 

Bruce leads them into one of the buildings and up to a conference room, and it’s a testament of the last 12 hours that he doesn’t even question the blue woman following Tony.

When the doors slide open, Tony allows himself a split second of panic. Bruce’s tight expression has already told him that they didn’t make it unscathed, and the uncertainty of what’s waiting for him makes his heart slam against his ribcage.

Steve is the first one to look up and meet Tony’s eyes.

Tony freezes.

Words leave his thoughts. It’s a terrifying sensation, to be completely unsure of what to say. That just doesn’t happen to Tony Stark, and yet, here he is.

He looks away; Natasha is sitting next to Steve, her eyes fixed on the table. At the other end of the table, Thor is standing next to… a raccoon? Tony does a double take, but decides he’s got bigger problems to worry about. Tony doesn’t know the two remaining women, but he looks on their faces say they’ve been in this fight as well.

Then, Tony looks at Rhodey and his legate contracts in pure relief of not being left completely alone in this world after Thanos.

Tony’s eyes return to Steve.

“Cap,” he says, throat tight.

“Tony,” Steve answers, and he doesn’t sound any less strained.

* * *

 

It’s all too obvious that whoever is not present in that room either vanished or died in the fight. Still, it hits Tony like a brick in the guts to hear how Vision died. How Wanda and Sam simply turned to dust.

As soon as Steve is done catching him up, Tony leaves the room without another word. He’s perfectly aware of the fact that they’ll have to start discussing their options at one point or another, but he simply refuses to receive any more bad news today. Especially with the stab wound in his chest continuously getting more painful.

It’s immature, and pointless as well, but he can’t help himself.

He’s never been to Wakanda before, and so the only place he knows where to go is back to the ship. Quill’s ship, not his. Tony didn’t plan to end up on an alien planet lightyears away, especially not with Peter.

A shudder wrecks Tony’s body, and he sinks to his knees on the concrete ground, right next to the ramp.

_\- Mr. Stark, please. -_

As if Tony would need any kind of persuasion to save the kid.

He’s not surprised to hear footsteps approaching him a few minutes later.

He’s also not surprised when Steve sits down next to him. But when the first thing he says is “I’m sorry”, Tony looks up.

“For what?”

“You lost someone too,” Steve says matter-of-factly. Because it’s not just Strange, and Wanda, and the Guardians. Half the universe vanished. Steve doesn’t even have to know to _know_.

“We all did,” Tony snaps. “I don’t need a pep talk.”

Except he does. More so than he wants to admit.

Steve doesn’t move. “Pepper?” he asks calmly.

Tony closes his eyes. He hasn’t allowed himself to think about her, and he doesn’t do it now either.

“I don’t know,” he answers evasively.

He feels Steve looking at him, but the Captain lets the silence stretch, giving Tony time to gather the sentence in his mouth.

“Do you remember…” He falters, unsure of how to address their fight at the airport without ripping at old wounds. “The Spider-Boy? From two years ago?”

He cringes at his wording. Peter has proven himself to be Spider-Man more than once now, but he doesn’t know how else to say it.

Steve tilts his head. “The kid from Queens?”

Tony nods, and wants to leave it at that, but the words tumble out of him anyways. “I told him to stay at home, but the damn kid wouldn’t listen to me, and then Thanos showed up and the stupid wizard gave up the stone and -“

He takes a breath, knowing full well his rant probably wasn’t making any sense to Steve.

“He was… he was so scared when everyone started turning to dust,” Tony mutters. “And I just _stood there_ instead of -”

“You couldn’t have done anything,” Steve interrupts kindly. “We can’t save everyone, you know that.”

“This is different.” Tony swallows. “We _lost_ , Cap.”

Steve sighs. “Yeah. But we’re going to make this right again.”

Tony nods. They don’t have any other option, really.

They sit there for a while, in silence.

It’s peaceful and bittersweet. Tony wishes so many things undone he doesn’t even know where to start, and the pain in his abdomen that he so far managed to ignore is growing worse by the minute.

“I’m sorry about Bucky,” he says finally, when the lightheadedness from his stab wound has loosened his tongue enough.

“I -” Steve starts to reply, but trails off, and Tony hears him inhale sharply. “You’re pale. And bleeding.”

“Yeah,” Tony agrees. “That’d be from when the big purple dickhead put a sword through my stomach.”

He turns his head to see Steve staring at him incredulously and doesn’t protest when gets ordered to visit the medical bay.

* * *

 

They come up with a plan. Or rather, Nebula, Shuri and the raccoon come up with a plan to track Thanos and the rest of them nod along because it’s the only shot they’ve got.

Tony doesn’t stay to wait around until they’ve got an actual lead. Instead, he prepares the quinjet and takes off for New York.

Rhodey tried to talk him out of it, said it wasn’t any use to put himself through even more pain when there was still hope.

But Tony keeps seeing how much Peter cared for his aunt. And, should they fail, keeps seeing her never knowing what happened to her nephew.

Which is why, a few hours later, he’s climbing the worst staircase of his life.

He doesn’t even know if he wants May to be there or not.

When he knocks, it takes her a moment to open the door. And when she does, Tony has to steel himself to remain standing where he is.

Her eyes are red-rimmed and haunted, her hair is uncombed and her lips are pressed to a thin line.

Tony swallows.

She looks at him for a moment and says, “He’s dead, isn’t he?”

Tony nods. “May, I’m -”

“You were supposed to protect him,” she whispers, and it shuts him up faster than a yell ever could. “When I found out about Spider-Man, you said you wouldn’t let anything happen to him.”

Tony can barely stand the furious look in her eyes, but doesn’t look away. He owes her this, he knows that. He also knows his apology won’t undo anything, but he can’t help himself.

“I’m so sorry.”

  _\- Sorry doesn’t cut it -_

Her expression softens a bit, but her voice still sounds strained. “He should’ve been on a field trip.”

He goes for a smile, but it doesn’t quite work. “I told him to go home.”

“He was always so stubborn.” And then, there are tears pooling in her eyes and she looks at him almost as if pleading. “Was he… What happened?”

“He turned to dust.”

_\- I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go -_

“It was quick. He didn’t feel anything.”

It hurts, lying to a woman who’s already lost everything, but he can’t bring himself to tell the truth. Especially knowing Peter wouldn’t have wanted her to worry.

* * *

 

As it turns out, Thanos really did retreat to watch the sunrise, and it pisses Tony off to no end. But this time, they have the element of surprise on their hands, and this time, Thor aims for Thanos’ head first. They manage to revive all those killed by the Infinity Gauntlet. Meaning, Vision is still lost, as well as countless warriors from Wakanda.

Still, it feels like more than they could’ve hoped for.

* * *

 

All around them, the dust is rearranging itself. All around them, people are falling into each other’s arms.

Tony feels like throwing up.

There’s a calm hand on his shoulder.

“They’ll come back too,” Steve says, but his shaking voice betrays him.

It’s the first time in his life Tony hopes for Barnes to be okay.

“Mister Stark?”

The hand disappears as Steve steps aside.

Tony turns to see two wide brown eyes staring at him in utter confusion.

“Mister Stark, what -”

Before he even realizes, Tony’s stumbling forward, wrapping the kid in his arms as tightly as he can. Peter hugs back without hesitation.

This time, it’s Peter holding him, while he can barely keep himself from crying. He refuses to give Peter even more to worry about, but it’s hard to stay strong anyhow.

“What happened?” Peter asks finally, hesitantly, as if he’s scared of the answer.

“You died,” Tony replies in a hollow voice.

Peter laughs, but it sounds broken, somehow. “Yeah, I kind of figured.”

“Half the universe died,” Tony carries on, even though he knows he shouldn’t be putting all of this on the kid. It just feels too good to have him alive and well in his arms. “But we made Thanos pay for it.”

Peter’s grip on him tightens. “Good,” he says, but his voice is small. “Tony, I … I should’ve-”

Tony breaks the hug and holds him at arms length. “You’ve got nothing to apologize for, kid. I’m proud of you.”

Peter’s expression is still troubled.

“You did a damn good job,” Tony adds, because Peter’s last words being an apology didn’t sit right with him. “It’s not your fault the purple grape got us.”

Finally, Peter shows him a small but genuine smile. “Thank you, Mister Stark.”

“It’s Tony.” The smile grows even brighter. “Tony,” Peter corrects himself. Then, his eyes suddenly go wide. “Tony,” he whispers and nods behind him.

Tony turns around, and is met with Pepper’s beautiful blue eyes.

After a second of stunned staring, they bolt forwards and wrap their arms around each other. Pepper’s meant safety to Tony for decades, and even now he can feel his defenses wearing down the moment she embraces him.

She can undoubtedly feel his shaking, and asks “Tony, what happened?”

_Peter, you, Vision, Wanda, Sam… Half of the Universe._

But he shakes his head and presses his face tighter to her shoulder.

Not now. Not yet.

For now, all that matters is their safety.


End file.
